The article states that about 25 percent of U.S, not counting those trained in Canada, are trained abroad.

Our system sets high standards for Americans to get into medical school, and competition to get in is fierce. As a result, many qualified American students cannot get it in to study medicine.

25 percent is huge! It's outrageous that so many doctors are imported. Why not open more US medical schools?

I guess that so many doctors are imported to keep wages in HMO facilities low.

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http://www.star-telegram.com/national_n ... 61717.html

Foreign-born physicians fear immigration backlash
By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Evidence that foreign-born doctors are at the heart of a British terrorist plot has foreign-born physicians in the U.S. on edge and wondering whether already stringent immigration security will get tougher.

Six physicians are among eight suspects in the failed terror attacks, including one from Iraq, one from Jordan, two from India and a man identified by hospital staff members as being from Lebanon.

"We're hoping and praying these physicians are cleared and that they've done no harm," said Dr. Subramaniam Balasubramaniam, past president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. The attacks led Prime Minister Gordon Brown to order a review of Britain's medical recruiting policies, which for years had been crafted to help fill a doctor shortage.

Officials have not called for such a review in the U.S., where foreign doctors face not only difficult licensing requirements but long background and security checks.

Still, doctors and immigration lawyers are bracing for fallout.

"This is going to complicate matters," Balasubramaniam said. "I'm sure Homeland Security will have a microscopic examination of physicians coming from abroad. I expect them to do that."

Medical practitioners are normally licensed at the state level. Foreign doctors usually come to the U.S. on temporary visas enabling them to complete their residency and take U.S. medical tests.

Under federal law, after doctors complete residence work, they must return to their home countries for two years before they can apply for a work visa or green card to return to the U.S. Then they must pass through the security process again.

Doctors who don't want to leave can apply for a waiver if they agree to practice in an underserved community for three years. Thousands of doctors sign up each year, and the programs have become a major source of medical service for rural and poor areas.

The FBI said two of the doctors under scrutiny inquired about working in the U.S. within the last year. That news, like word of the original plot, moved quickly within the community of foreign doctors.

"Everyone was outraged by it," said Dr. Issam Daya, a Syrian-born obstetrician practicing in Maryland and a member of the National Arab American Medical Association.

Worries also spread in India, whose highly skilled medical professionals have always found it easy to work and study abroad. Three of the suspects are from a single family in Bangalore. It was the first time that Indian Muslims have been accused of being linked to a possible al Qaeda plot.

In emotional television broadcasts, Indian political and medical leaders said they worried that it would be harder to get visas to Britain and that Indian professionals living abroad would face racial profiling.

Ajay Kumar, president of the Indian Medical Association, reacted to Brown's orders, saying: "I'm really peeved, because every place in the world has Indian doctors. ... One should not malign the entire population of Indian doctors working very long hours and practicing medicine for generations because two people out of 1.1 billion might have done a horrible crime."

This report includes material from The Washington Post.

Foreign-trained doctors

About 25 percent of U.S. physicians -- or 228,655 -- are trained abroad, not counting those trained in Canada, according to the American Medical Association.

Of the 11,000 applicants certified to apply for residency and fellowship programs in 2006, 83 percent were non-U.S. citizens; 25 percent came from India; 6 percent from Pakistan; and 4 percent from China, according to the medical education commission.